Years ago, I heard someone put it as being in survival mind. The notion that the poor can make free and rational choices and thus can be held responsible for their situation is incorrect. There is accumulating evidence that poverty literally messes with your mind in a way that obstructs responsible choices. In fact, the free market contributes to an environment that makes the poor decidedly unfree: confused, preoccupied, and feeling overwhelmed and hopeless. In other words, being poor makes you cognitively dysfunctional. The latest research to show this was published in August 2013 in the journal Science and is titled Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function. The gist of the argument is, Poverty captures attention, triggers intrusive thoughts, and reduces cognitive resources. In other words, the more preoccupied one is with troubles, the less able one is to muster the cognitive resources necessary to rationally guide choice and action. Most people find themselves overwhelmed with problems now and then, but not constantly. What living in poverty does is to hit a person with a toxic cocktail of overwhelming problems day in and day out: financial problems, health problems, parenting issues, victimization by criminals and others, and the problem of just finding and keeping a job.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 17:31:23 +0000
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